Meta

Games Which Draw Emotional Reactions

..why can’t I hold these feels?

Probably something not a lot of gamers will willfully admit to, but today I wanted to talk about games which provoke an emotional response – be it happiness, sadness or just plain simple make you think about it long after those final credits roll. I must state before I continue, this post will contain a lot of spoilers!

3. Valiant Hearts – set between the years 1914 and 1918 during the Great War, Valiant Hearts follows the story of 5 characters. Each are joined by a dog which is intersected in each of their stories and helps them on their journey. My entire play through, I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that since the dog was the only consistent throughout the entire game, he was obviously going to die. Right? Wrong. The dog survives! But, for the short amount of time you spend with each of the other characters, Ubisoft did a great job creating quite the emotional connection between them and the player. The part which nearly had me tearing up was when Karl and his newly reunited family visit Emiles grave to mourn, after he gets executed. Right in the feels ;-(

2. Journey – I must admit, I am a bit ashamed as a dedicated Playstation gamer, that I never played this game before its recent re-release on Playstation 4. I decided it was time I gave this game a go after hearing people rave about it for a good few years now, and boy was I not disappointed! Starting off just standing in a desert, with seemingly nowhere standing out that I had to venture to, I just started walking across the plains, taking in the breath-taking scenery.

About 20 minutes into my Journey, I saw a black dot in the distance so I decided to walk towards it, as I had no idea what it could be. To my utmost delight, it was another player. If you haven’t played Journey before, there is multiplayer but you cannot talk to your companion. You have to rely on “chirping” to each other, basically you have to come up with your own basic language as a means to communicate to them. Genius! Absolutley genius!

Me and my companion made our way through the campaign, and that is when it happened, that bloody ending! As we made our way towards the summit, after surviving a quite chilling stealth section to stay away from the flying snake enemies, I was thinking, we made it! WE BLOODY DID IT! Then my character started to walk extremely slowly, as did my companion. So, I decided I would try to walk towards him in case it was the cold temperature that was causing us to slow down and we had to give each other strength to make it to the summit of the mountain. It wasn’t to be, first he fell into the snow and then me. I genuinely thought this was the end. I may have only known the guy for about an hour at this stage but it felt like I had known him for a lot longer. We had our own story to tell!

The euphoria I felt when the game play came back after a short cut scene was immense. There was my companion waiting for me as we flew and chirped our way to the summit, where we walked side by side into the light – thus concluding our Journey.

Seriously, I am getting a bit emotional even recalling this – if you haven’t played Journey yet and own a PS3 or PS4, you are doing yourself a great disservice! GO DO IT NOW!

1. The Last of Us – What, you expected something else from me? Never going to happen 😛 Probably my favourite game of all time, this game had me an emotional wreck more or less from the word go. But I am not going to go the cliche ending here, no – for me there was a scene in the game which packed A LOT more punch than that.

The farmhouse. Ellie runs away and Joel has followed her on horse pack do an abandoned farmhouse where he finds her sitting up in a girls bedroom reading through the randomers diary. What follows is probably the most emotion sparking thing in gaming; well, for me at least!

Ellie: Is this really all they had to worry about? Boys. Movies. Deciding which shirt goes with which skirt? It’s bizarre.

Joel: Get up, we’re leaving. C’mon.

Ellie: And if I say no?

Joel: Do you even realize what your life means? Huh? Running off like that.
Putting yourself at risk…it’s pretty goddamn stupid.

Ellie: Well, I guess we’re both disappointed with each other then.

Joel: What do you want from me?

Ellie: Admit that you wanted to get rid of me the whole time.

Joel: Tommy knows this area better than–

Ellie: Agh, fuck that.

Joel: Well, I’m sorry, I trust him better than I trust myself.

Ellie: Stop with the bullshit. What are you so afraid of? That I’m gonna end
up like Sam? I can’t get infected. I can take care of myself.

Joel: How many close calls have we had?

Ellie: Well, we seem to be doing alright so far.

Joel: And now you’ll be doing even better with Tommy.

Ellie: I’m not her, you know.

Joel: What?

Ellie: Maria told me about Sarah. And I–

Joel: Ellie. You are treading on some mighty thin ice here.

Ellie: I’m sorry about your daughter, Joel, but I have lost people too.

Joel: You have no idea what loss is.

Ellie: Everyone I have cared for has either died or left me. Everyone fucking
except for you. So don’t tell me that I would be safer with someone
else — because the truth is I’d just be more scared.

Joel: You’re right… You’re not my daughter, and I sure as hell ain’t your
dad. And we are going our separate ways.

Troy Baker and Ashley Johnsons performance made sure that this scene hit me right in the feels! But as they say, endure and survive!